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Clarity

Duncan Hopkins

Austin, Texas

I solve creative problems for customer driven companies.
UX. Creative Design. Branding and Strategy.
Companies rarely find one person that has this experience and skill set. I am that person. With over 20 years in interactive alone, I am able to solve your user experience issues while bringing creative strength, strategy and clean design to the entire process.

Answers

Although this seems like a good idea perhaps for huge companies, i believe that replacing human contact with an app, would not do much to promote employee engagement. as an employee i would value personal interaction with HR and my superiors to feel they really care about my well being and retention. A company interface might have the opposite affect.

Now if you are talking about asking non business related questions, like "what's your favorite coffee flavor?" (if next to the coffee ;) )or "what kind of company event would you like best?" - this gives the employee a friendlier atmosphere and engages them as part of team. make it fun and morale building as well as informative for you.
hope this helps!
Duncan

information usually is bought from other real estate listing vendors -many buy those lists and re-aggregate - if that is the case and you are using content they paid for without permission there could be issues

Experienced people are the first to hire. younger inexperienced employees will benefit more with their mentorship. Your company will benefit from people that know exactly what to do to succeed. why would you put your start-up in the hands of someone who never had the experience? i am not saying don't hire any junior talent but get the right experienced talent to inspire and motivate them.
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I second invision for showing quick online prototypes, but for something more versatile, i use AxureRP (www.axure.com) . The ability to build a sketchy wireframe or a pixel perfect app is amazing. I love it. Great for mobile gestures and animations. Go check it out - they offer a free trial. Contact me if you want more info but they have awesome tutorials on the site. I taught myself everything.

Developers and designers are both sensitive with feedback, ( guilty as charged) as a UX UI designer i make sure i collaborate through out the project with my developer and team. Goes both ways too. I benefit greatly from developer input and has saved me from making decisions i regret if i had not asked if it could be built. I also agree having a project manager or scrum master in a team is a great idea.

I agree with Kelly, if you can sell, and are comfortable selling, then see if you can do it alone if not, hiring a great sales/ marketing person to handle that role while you manage the agency, could be the best move. I have benefited before from working with a great sales team that are much better at their craft than i, while as a designer i can concentrate on delivering quality product.

When looking for a high quality UX designer please note that a UX designer is not necessarily a UI designer and vice versa. Some designer are both, like myself, or they might specialize. Dribble has awesome designers but don't always show the UX process that went into the design. Try looking at UX specific sites such as http://uxmag.com/ or LinkedIn groups.
Be sure to ask UX designers about their process and samples, such as user stories, case flows, wireframes, architecture etc. You need more than just a great design, it needs to be structured to meet your business goals and show results.

For example, a client that had a great looking site asked me to review the site UX and find out why their user retention and sales were low. After evaluating the site I discovered that the shopping cart was a one way path and customers had no way to purchase other items or return to the site. Just adding incentives and a clear return path greatly increased their sales.

I have been hired to define the UX and architecture for a site or app, and then pass on, or collaborate with UI designer. I have also just created the UI, working with a client's UX team. But i also do all parts of the process depending on the project. Hope this helps!
Please contact me if you have any other questions.
Duncan

In most cases you get what you pay for. Our company gets a lot of business from start-ups that went the route of finding a cheap freelance developer or company and then find out they could not use the code, they wanted more to deliver the code and or kept the code to attempt to get more money.
We help these companies get the code working and looking good for their investors but if they had gone to a reputable company first it would have saved them valuable start up costs. This is not always the case of course. When you are looking at a developer, large or small, get references and look at previous work just like any other business. A lot of companies are also wary of start ups due to lack of finances so be upfront with them about your goals and ability to pay.
Please contact me if you need any help.
Thanks
Duncan

As Dan says, ( and he should know) This site is not really for that. You could develop relationships by giving advice on subjects pertaining to your business, but i see that as a byproduct.
Use LinkedIn and other social and business apps to reach out and engage customers.

Trust the opinion of the designer, don't make it a free for all of feedback from everyone and your mother. Thatis how bad logos happen. Work with them to decide the best one based on your business goals. They will appreciate you asking their professional opinion on the design.

Reviews

Duncan has a true passion for designing digital experiences and products with the user in mind. He dedicates time to research, design, test and fine-tune so the end user finds ease of use and success from the beginning. I enjoyed brainstorming and collaborating with him on projects that delivered immediate value to our partners.

Duncan brings an attention to detail and creative approach to challenging design situations. He can span both product and brand marketing seamlessly. He is always willing to help out at a moments notice and consistently sets a great tone for a company's culture.

Not only is Duncan creative and mindful of the bigger picture in terms of user experience, but he is very adaptable and embraces the collaborative nature of visual design in an agile development environment. I thoroughly enjoyed working with him and would gladly do so again.

I've worked with Duncan for over 15 years and would highly recommend him. He is multi-talented and has a strong artistic vision that would be an asset for any company. He's well-organized and capable of project planning and oversight. Duncan is a team player and works well with others.

I have trusted Duncan with many projects over the years, starting with the development of interactive CDs while at Dell before the internet was even an option. When the internet was in its infancy, Duncan was one of the first to dive into interactive design, and in my opinion is one of the best you'll find. Duncan is one of the most talented and creative people I've ever met and truly "gets" all aspects of marketing, including corporate identity, branding, positioning, messaging, print & online. He also has direct experience with most market segments. Working with Duncan always seems to surface the best ideas resulting in a final outcome that exceeds my expectations.

I am very happy to recommend Duncan to any company. He has one of the best creative minds in IT business. I've never come accross someone so skilled and able to think outside the box than Duncan.
Duncan is also a very strategic person and a real joy to work with. You can always count on him. With Duncan, you can just give him a simple idea and he'll come back with an incredible piece of work. I would love to work with Duncan and have him on my team again. In my 20 years in IT, no one has ever been able to compare to Duncan in my mind, and that's the truth.
I have no hesitation in recommending Duncan anywhere at any level.

Duncan designed our logo for LivingOrder (our regional service business) and created the style guide for colors and other thematic elements for its image overall. He also did the original version of our website, which is now still very similar even after years of changes. Duncan is extremely knowledgeable and very creative! He's been a top web designer since before people even knew what they were!